Eclipse
by honkeytonkwoman
Summary: If you love me then do me one thing.' She steps out of my embrace and turns her back to me. Opening the door she hesitates before leaving. 'Make it eclipse.' A look into what happens when the darkness of night falls and how intoxicating it can be.
1. Eclipse edited as of dec 14, 09

_Author's Note: _Thanks to LilMissBlack for getting me into this ship in the first place! Without her story, I wouldn't have come up with this one! This story came to me literally while I was trying to sleep one night. Incidentally, I had to write it and ended up not sleeping at all that night. So hopefully it was worth it.

**e·clipse**

The partial or complete obscuring, relative to a designated observer, of one celestial body by another.

A fall into obscurity or disuse; a decline

She comes only in the dark. At night when the halls are black and the students are tucked away in their beds dreaming. Blending in to the shadows, silently and stealthily, she makes her decent into the dungeons. Clinging to the walls with her arms wrapped around herself she walks down the all too familiar hallway and into the potions classroom she hates to love.

The night-time can change a person. The silence captivates the mind and the darkness numbs the senses causing a wave of contradiction to cast over one self. That's what happens to her. She becomes a cesspool of emotions that for her would normally be uncharacteristic. The barriers around her are brought down and the insecurity of her actions put aside to be brought up afterwards. Only after all thoughts of repercussions are forsaken is when she enters.

Her knock is timid, despite the intensity of her desires. I need not answer for she already knows I'm there...waiting. It is a dance we've done many nights before. Neither of us really knows when it will stop; once again another night has come and she has knocked. The door creaks slightly as she enters swiftly, checking to make sure no one has followed her to my quarters. With the coast clear she quietly whispers a few spells to ensure that we will not be disturbed or worse- expelled and fired. She could never handle that humiliation. I've spent my life as an outcast. Unwanted and ignored by those around me. I was used to dealing with embarrassment.

She rarely spoke. The use of words would only bring us to the reality of our situation and neither of us wanted to be brought to terms with whatever our feelings were for each other. I accepted her silence and welcomed it. She slowly takes of her cloak and drops it over the chair, tilting her head while looking at the fire. The light softly glows on her face illuminating her cheeks and warming them to a slight rosy pink. Her curly brown hair freed from its normal tight pony tail cascades down her shoulders. She turns away from the fire and frowning slightly, looks at me. I'm sure I already know her request. She sits lightly on the arm of the chair watching as I get up from sitting on the bed. Grabbing my wand off of my bedside table, I walk over to the fire and mutter a quick spell to eliminate it. No light. It's only lets us see each other and makes things more genuine. The room goes dark and only the soft moonlight escaping into the room from the window remains. It's unavoidable-neither of us can create an eclipse to distinguish the offending moonlight.

I turn back to look at her and she smiles weakly satisfied with what I was able to do yet unsatisfied that the impossible eclipse could not be made. Walking over towards her I place my wand down on table and stop in front of her. Looking into her eyes I see a wave of conflicting feelings and I slowly bring down my lips to hers. She doesn't hesitate to kiss me back. I never knew that I could feel such strong passion and desire coupled with emptiness and aversion until I kissed Hermione. I've never been one to show my true feelings- an occulmens master would never think to do such a thing-however, with her I fear that she knows. Buried deep within us, mixed together with the fear and uncertainty, there is unspoken love. Coupled together next to the admiration and respect there is desire for something more.

The kiss lasts long and her breathing becomes heavy and erratic. Her want grows stronger as the kiss deepens and her arms around my neck begin to claw at my back. Legs tangle around torso, bodies meld together and, not breaking the kiss, I lift her up off the chair arm and place her on the bed. The dance begins now, when the clothes come off silently and hastily. The rhythm is unavoidable for we know each other's body map perfectly. It's not long before the silence is broken, only once, by her rising climax; even then it is only a gasp and a small moan. Soon after I succumb to the same end as her and the room is filled with only the sounds of our ragged breath.

Rolling off from on top of her to allow her better comfort I finally break the silence.

"Hermione, please stay." I ask. As feeble a question as it may seem I can't help but hope that this will be the night our ignorance to our hearts will be broken.

She looks at me and considers the idea. Never one to rush into things without thinking, she weights the various options against each other. Moonlight reflecting off of her, my night vision allows me to clearly make out her face and I watch as she bites her lip. She brings together her legs, crosses her knees and looks at them with unreadable eyes.

"Severus," she starts quietly, "don't be silly."

She brings her face up to look at me as smiles and speaks cautiously.

"After all it will be daylight soon."

I frown slightly. She maybe smiling, but her eyes are filled with pain. We both know what we really want. Feeling a sudden wave of invulnerability she gets up and dresses with her back turned to me. Grabbing her cloak and wand from it's inside pocket she walks to the door and stops in front of it.

Taking advantage of the moment I am unable to bear the silence.

"What do I have to do to make you want to love me?"

"...Whatever do you mean?" she says, looking at the floor. Though it is poorly lit in the room, I can see her blush clearly.

"I have been able to admit loving you to myself and I know you love me too."

"......" Ignoring her silence, I continue.

"Christ, Hermione! If I can admit it to myself then I see no reason why you of all people can't!"

She sighs and raises her head to look at me, her eyes penetrating straight through me.

"You love me?" she stated, more than asked.

"Well I wouldn't have bloody well said I just did if I didn't."

She placed her hands on her hips, "You really mean it?"

I sigh. I have learned to have more patience with her than most other people however, this time my answer was sharper than before. "I refuse to be a parrot and continue to repeatedly state obvious answers. I do not have the intelligence of a needle head, _unlike_ your dimwitted friends Potter and Weasley. Do not assume that I parade around like a pre-adolescent youth and use the word 'love' so loosely and often."

"......" She glares at me, a small flare erupting in her eyes as she raises her eyebrow questioningly.

Standing, I walk over to her and place my hands on her shoulders and look into her eyes. Instantly, her gaze softens and once again she looks down at her feet.

"Severus..." She starts cautiously again, "If you love me then do me one thing?"

I smile, "Of course."

She steps out of my embrace and turns her back to me. Opening the door she steps out and hesitates before finishing.

"Make it eclipse?"

She shuts the door before I can answer her and leaves just as quietly as she came. Disappearing out of the classroom and into the corridors, she makes her way back to her dorms to get, presumably, a few hours of sleep. After all, it will be daylight soon. I sigh as I lay down under the sheets in bed.

'_Once again,'_ I muse to myself bitterly_ 'I am left alone in the moonlight_.'


	2. UPDATE

Well all of you that have written reviews and enjoyed this story eclipse will be excited to know that I am deciding to turn "eclipse" into a 4 part series as inspired by the "Twilight" series. "eclipse" will, like the books in "Twilight", be the 3rd part. Each part, however will be listed as it's own fiction because they can be enjoyed separatly as well as a series. Keep on the look out for my new HG/SS fic "Twilight". Good fans of Meyer's series might even be able to point out a few quotes from her books. I look forward to writing the other 3 parts of this series, and I hope you all look forward to reading them. 


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